I worked a bit on Celtic bookmark 10 from Artecy. The end’s not that near (it will take some time to fill it in) but I almost have the outline finished and won’t need to use the chart anymore.

I bought the chart titled “Rose” for this off Etsy, but the store/user isn’t there anymore so I can’t link to the source. I have had nothing but trouble with it, but think I’ll like the way it looks once it’s done (it’s brighter than it looks). I’m working it in square stitch, which I’ve never done before. I had a difficult time getting it started, and have had problems with miscounting and knots.

I worked some on the temperature bookmark; there’s more information in a previous post. Someday I’ll be done with the summer and get into more changes of color.

This is last month’s picture of the Christmas card I’m trying to finish; it’s’ from a Vervaco kit. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I only added to the curl on the bottom right (it’s all the way around, but still needs another color for shading). There’s not that much more cross-stitching to go on it, but there’s a bit of backstitching. I might get it done before Christmas.

I’m trying to finish this up before Christmas; it’s a Christmas card from a kit by Vervaco:

I worked a bit on Celtic Bookmark 10 by Artecy; I’m not sure how much since I didn’t take a picture at the end of last month.

I’m now marginally over two-thirds finished with 99. I would have done more, but I spilled a little lemonade on the unstitched part, took it off the frame and washed it, and haven’t gotten around to putting it back on so that I can continue working on it.

I also started a new bracelet; it’s a loom pattern that I’m attempting to do as square stitch; I’ve restarted three times after two or three rows (and I’ve pulled out most of this row once because I missed a bead early and didn’t realize until I got near the end, and some of the beads will have to come out because I think I wrapped the thread around the bracelet). I tried it with Fireline, Nymo D, and settled on Nymo O, even though it’s a little thin. I didn’t like the amount of thread showing through with the thicker threads. I wanted gray Nymo B, but Michael’s only carries Nymo D in various color packs and Joann only carries white Nymo D; they don’t have a great selection of beading stuff.

I didn’t work on much this month besides beads. I worked a little on two things that weren’t beads, both cross-stitch. I finished another bracelet on October 3, but didn’t feel like making a separate post for it. It’s the cane-back bracelet from the Quick + Easy Beadwork, a special issue of Beadwork magazine. It says “display until November 5”, but I think it’s gone from the shelves here (at least at the grocery, which has limited space for magazines). It doesn’t seem to be on Interweave’s site yet. I had issues starting this (I think I restarted three times) and ending it (I had to end my thread near the end and for some reason had serious issues with it), but overall, I enjoyed working on it. It’s the first thing I’ve done that was not peyote stitch.

This is my progress as of September 30:

And this is the finished bracelet:

There’s something else I want to make from the magazine with two-hole beads, which I understand how to do, but can’t quite manage it; I’ll try again at some point.

I worked a little on 99 by Ink Circles; I’m finished with bottle 66 and once I finish the shelf, I’ll be 2/3 of the way through.

This uses the Crate of Grapes pattern by Beadholden Designs; I chose not to make it purple. I enjoyed working on this; I like the way it looks; for some reason, it reminds me of one of my grandmothers (and not the one I would have expected). It was easy to work being a repeat pattern where everything is in groups of three. After a while, I didn’t even use the chart. I do have to say that I find her word charts a little hard to read; she uses full names of beads instead of just using letters or symbols. Personally, I find word charts easiest to deal with when they are A, B, C, etc. I really like her designs; I’ve worked one and have one more that I’ve started. It’s a loom pattern, and I had issues with the warp.

I did a ring and toggle clasp from Melissa van Dijk’s site; I found it easier going that I did the last time I used it.

I’m now working on something from a magazine that uses right-angle weave; all I’ve done so far is peyote. It’s been interesting; I’ve taken it apart twice so far: once for getting lost in the pattern and once for a bad bead. I am going to try again.

I worked on seven things this month: one needlepoint, one beading, and five cross-stitch. Either my picture-taking abilities are gone or the last Android update messed with my phone camera, so my pictures are not great this month.

This bracelet is from a pattern called “Vintage” by Tauriel, who is no longer on Etsy. I had a couple of minor issues, but overall, everthing went fine. I did change a couple of bead colors here and there, and kind of wish I’d changed a few more (I would have narrowed some of the blue outlines, if I’d noticed before I did them). I did a ring and toggle clasp from Melissa van Dijk’s site. The instructions were clear and easy to follow, but for some reason I had more problems making them than I did with the bracelet overall. I’m not entirely happy with the colors I used on the ring and toggle, but they look ok and work (I wore it tonight and it didn’t come undone).

I started more things than I finished this month, though I needed to start one of them (I finished one Christmas card and started another). I worked some on this peyote-stitch bracelet (Vintage by Tauriel on Etsy).

For cross-stitching, I worked mostly on Christmas cards; I finished one and started this one. They are from a kit by Vervaco. It’s charted with full stitches only, but I’m using some quarter stitches around the curves of the heart (and will for the ornaments) because I think it will look better.

I worked a tiny bit on 99 by Ink Circles; I finished the interior of the bottle I’m currently outlining.

I also worked a little on Celtic bookmark 10 from Artecy. I’m currently planning on purple interiors, but may change my mind between now and whenever I get the outline finished.

For some reason, I started a new bookmark. There was a post somewhere on the 123stitch.com message board about temperature bookmarks, where you do a bit each day with a color representing the high temperature for that day. I’d run across the concept (maybe for scarves) before and been interested. I found a pattern on reddit, though I’m doing five 5×1 areas instead of 9×2 across since I’m using 14 count plastic canvas instead of 18 count Aida. It came to me later that I could have done 7 4×1 areas across and had it by weeks without adding much width, but it was too late by that point. I wanted a little more color variation than the key with that pattern, so I used a slightly modified version of one that was linked in the discussion (from here; the colors were three-degree spans for the warmer temps and five for the colder, and I chose to have everything in four-degree spans). I’m taking my weather data from Weather Underground, copying the temperature data into a spreadsheet, and (somehow) coming up with a pattern (well, a 5×73 list of color codes). January was interesting, temperature-wise (lowest high was 22, highest high was 68).

This is one of a kit of three Christmas cards from Vervaco; I’m going to make two of them for my sisters. The kit came with appropriately sized 18 count aida, floss, aperture cards, and envelopes; I’m not sure if it came with a needle. This was easy enough to do; I didn’t have many problems with it except for placing the star at the top. I did make one change to the chart; the top right branch of the tree on the left had a column of two stitches across instead of one like the other branches, so I changed it to one. Because of that change, I had trouble placing the star as it was on the chart, but it wasn’t a huge problem. It doesn’t really matter exactly where the star is placed.

I’m going to do the one on the left for the other one; I don’t know how I feel about the heart, but the ornaments feel nostalgic.

I worked a little on 99 by Ink Circles; I’m working on bottle number sixty; when I finish this row, I’ll have two-thirds of it done.

This is one of a set of three Christmas cards from Vervaco; I’d been eyeing this kit at Hobby Lobby for a long time and ended up buying it when they put a ton of their cross-stitch and needlepoint kits and supplies on clearance for 75% off. I’m going to do two and I can’t decide if the second one is going to be this one again (it’s my favorite by far) or one of the other ones. This is my primary project right now; I’m house-sitting and can work on it wherever and whenever I feel like it (I live with a recipient).

I worked some on Vintage peyote-stitch bracelet from Tauriel on Etsy. I haven’t figured out where to set up to work on this where I’m house-sitting yet, so I’ve been working on it when I’ve been at home instead.

This is Celtic bookmark 10 from Artecy. I’m planning on working it in purples (one old, two new). I don’t know why I started this when what I really need to be working on is Christmas cards.